According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey (and my amateur calculations), nearly 860,000 people in the U.S. commute to work via bicycle. Of that, the report estimates there are 28,864 hearty Minnesotans who ride to their jobs.

At the Hub Bike Co-op in South Minneapolis, lately customers are calling about their new bikes being stolen. “We end up talking to somebody replacing a bike that has been stolen almost every day,” Hub Bike Co-op employee David Meyer said.

A 13-year-old male is in serious condition after being hit by car while biking in Gaylord, Minn. Thursday evening. According to authorities, the male was biking southbound down 4th Street when he went through a stop sign at Lincoln Avenue.

On the cold and snowy landscape of a wintry Saturday afternoon, bicyclists of all ages came to pay their respects. Marcus Nalls, 26, was one of them: a commuter on two wheels who used his bike to get around. Stefan Turner, a bicycle mechanic, had just worked on Nalls’ bike, installing his rack and fenders. “Marcus was one of the … coolest guys we’ve had in our shop in a long time,” Turner said.

With some help from WCCO viewers, one little girl’s life has been changed for the better. Seven-year-old Olivia Levoir from North Branch received a special hand pedal bike Saturday. She has paraplegia and cannot operate a typical bike. Her mother, Danyelle Levoir, said Olivia’s condition has kept her from being a typical kid during the warmer months.

Few people on earth are capable of completing the Ironman. On Saturday, a young Minnesota man is in Florida to do something nobody like him has ever done before: Complete that infamous race even though he’s paralyzed from the chest down.

In the midst of his “Bicycle Around Minnesota” tour, Gerald Johnson was hit by a car outside of Paynesville, Minn., and airlifted to the hospital. While driving a her car at 9:12 a.m. Friday at the intersection of County Road 16 and 293rd Avenue — 2 miles north of Paynesville, Minn. — Josie Magnan drove through without stopping at the stop sign, according to the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office.

What’s Minnesota’s best bike trail? WCCO viewers voted and the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike and State Trail, located near Brainerd, came out on top. “When you’re on the mountain bike trails and you come around a corner on one of those trails and there’s this mine lake down below — crystal clear blue that looks like the Caribbean — I mean it’s so spectacular,” Jenny Smith said.

Beginning this week — and every Saturday throughout the summer — park rangers will be hosting guided tours. You choose which route: Harriet Island, Stone Arch Bridge or Fort Snelling. We asked the rangers to give us a little sneak peak.

A 24-year-old woman who was hit by a vehicle while she was riding her bicycle has died — and police are still looking for the driver who sped from the scene. Minneapolis police say the woman was riding at the intersection of 28th and Pleasant Avenue South on Wednesday night when a vehicle sped through a stop sign, with its headlights off, and hit her.

Now that summer is almost here, many of us are spending a lot more time on our bikes.
And if you have kids, you may be looking at buying a new bike that’s a better fit, or teaching a little one how to ride.

Duluth police have released the name of a 36-year-old man who died after crashing his bicycle into a pole. Officers saw Koantonio Dean Farley of Duluth riding his bicycle at a high rate of speed in downtown Duluth Wednesday. Police say Farley had crossed the street and was trying to go up a ramp when he hit a pole.

On Wednesday, a bicyclist narrowly avoided a Molotov cocktail that was tossed from the bridge over the Midtown Greenway. Though the bicyclist was not injured, the incident has prompted a meeting to improve safety measures along the bike path.